Chapter 14 - You Rogues (CF)
At Tubba’s call, Paralus instantly loosened his muscles, allowing Shazam - Tubba’s old friend, to get a hearty blow in with the hand thankfully not wielding the knife. However, Shazam, after completing the blow, took a step back, so that the angry orange Clubba he had struck could not retaliate and lash out. Paralus, to his credit, merely shrugged off the blow and stood there, slouched over, seemingly uninterested. Tubba looked over to the green snifit. He had hardly changed. The lime-green robes accentuating his shape, the dark eyes hiding behind the jet-black mask, the large, cylindrical “trunk” that served as both nose and mouth, as well as expressing some emotions - it shrunk when Snifits were annoyed or expressing emotions that were unwelcome, and grew when they were happy or pleased, but when they wore a mask, as they always did, it was virtually indiscernible. “Shazam. How?” Shazam tucked the knife he was holding into his robes. “I could ask you the same thing, Tubba.” Shazam said after a pause. “How are you here, in a ship that’s hiding various forging materials?” “Why are you here, invading our ship?” Tubba challenged back. “How did you leave the Glitz Pit?” “Where did you go after leaving the Glitz Pit?” “What happened to Gusty Gulch?” Tubba sighed with exasperation. “Shazam, neither of us is going to get anywhere if we don’t answer the other’s questions.” Nodding, Shazam agreed: “Yes, so you answer mine.” Aware of the Snifits surrounding them, and only Paralus’ surprisingly comforting presence on his side, Tubba sighed again. “Fine, Shazam. You win.” For the first time, without the threat of death lingering over his head, Tubba felt a strange reluctance. The moment had come. The moment he had been waiting for. He could spill out to one of his oldest friends how Gusty Gulch had been sleazily stolen from his and Clubba control. And yet, the words wouldn’t come. How would he explain it all? Shazam had left Gusty Gulch, as with all the other battlers, pleased. He had come, fought with Tubba, and done what Tubba had expected of them. They had chased away the Koopas - or so they thought. Chubba had been a cohort of Ludwig, the two of them had been working to finish Tubba, cornering him in Barrel Volcano. Chubba, however, decided to bring Tubba back to the Glitz Pit. With Tubba out of the way, the power of Gusty Gulch automatically fell to Mazette, the Queen of the former King, Tubba’s cousin Mycerinus, and Clubbette, Tubba’s illegitimate half-sister. Tubba wasn’t sure if it was brotherly love or brotherly hate on Chubba’s part to take him back to the Glitz Pit, away from where Ludwig would want to eliminate him permanently, not when he was threatened with death if he ever told another battler the full story. Shazam was waiting patiently for an answer. Tubba had to say something. “It all started six years ago, Shazam. We didn’t actually win Gusty Gulch back.” Tubba’s voice shook - he hadn’t expected to become so emotional. He could feel tears welling up in his eyes as he talked about his immense failure in 2016. How had he expected Chubba would not dabble a hand into the affairs of his hometown? How had he not seen it? How had he let his Kingdom down, again? “Chubba.” Tubba choked out, thankful with Shazam for not interrupting. “He was colluding with Ludwig. Ludwig wanted me out the way, because Mazette and Clubbette wanted me out of the way. They wanted me unable to marshal the fight for Clubban independence, and they were willing to give up Gusty Gulch to do it. They thought I was fighting a lost cause. A cause that wasn’t worth it.” Tubba heaved with a sob. “Chubba wanted me dead. Chubba told Ludwig, who he was allied with, not to bother with keeping me indentured to the Glitz Pit. Eliminate me. Chubba balked at the end, though, saving my life. For the past six years, I’ve been living in the Glitz Pit, unable to tell anyone this.” A long pause followed. Shazam and the Snifits milled awkwardly, while Paralus was watching Tubba with a curious expression. The tears kept flowing from Tubba’s eyes - he couldn’t remember the last time he cried. Crying was not how he expressed sadness - he retreated into his shell and vented his sadness into anger. When your father died. The voice echoed in Tubba’s head. That was the last time he cried. Wiping away the tears, Tubba looked over to Shazam. His expression was unreadable, the eyes giving nothing away, and the mask hiding the other non-verbal cues on his face. Shazam waved away the Snifits, leaving just Paralus with them. “I didn’t know.” Shazam spoke, his voice quiet. “I thought we had done it. When Gusty Gulch dissolved a few weeks later, I thought it was fishy... but I never questioned it. I just left the Glitz Pit. I’m so sorry.” Shazam placed a hand on his mask’s chin, clearly pondering something. “You lost your ability to confide in your friends, Gusty Gulch, and your liberty... in one day.” Tubba waved his hand, as if dismissing Shazam’s concerns. “It’s nothing. I’m here now. You must know I’ve gotten away. Everyone knows,” Tubba guessed. The Glitz Pit was famous, and the fact a battler went missing against contract would be big news. The fact that it was sixteen year veteran Tubba, the twin brother of the owner, would make it even more interesting. “I’m not giving up. Gusty Gulch is ours. The Clubbas will be independent.” Nodding, Shazam turned over to a porthole, peering out at the sun dazzling off the clear blue water. “I suppose you want to know what happened to me.” When Tubba nodded his assent, Shazam broke into his story. “After leaving the Glitz Pit, I joined the group of Snifit mercenaries known as The Introverts. My father was the leader, and I inherited leadership from him. The reason I had to leave the Glitz Pit was that my father died untimely, on an ambush in the Mushroom Kingdom. The leadership fell to me. Since then, we’ve been roaming the globe, serving our own needs by selling weapons - the usual, swords, axes, magic wands - which is why we attacked this ship. You’re carrying forging materials.” “We’re not actually,” Paralus broke in, causing both Tubba and Shazam to jump. Tubba had forgotten than the large orange Clubba was even still standing there. “That’s a lie to be allowed to dock here. We’re unloading some of our crew, and then going to Gusty Gulch. We’re going to make a final stand, once we get stealthily into the Castle. We will reclaim Gusty Gulch.” “Are we?” Shazam flicked a coin into the air, catching it and then pocketing it again. The green-robed Snifit nodded. “Fine. I’m in,” Tubba opened his mouth to protest, but Shazam cut him off. “I owe it to you, Tubba. I didn’t hold up my word in 2016. I’m going to now. Plus, I tried to tear your head off just now,” Shazam rumbled with rusty laughter. “No hard feelings? I thought you were someone else.” “Someone else?” Tubba asked sharply. Shazam swept his hood over his head. “No worry. But speaking of someone else’s - I’m sure I’m not the only one who’d like to hear your full story, Tubba. How about Aaron? Xavier?” “You know where they are?” Tubba asked, scarcely able to believe it. Were most of his friends going to unite, as they did in 2016, to reclaim Gusty Gulch? This was straight out of Tubba’s dreams. He could think of few other people he would love to fight alongside him. “They’re both in Rogueport,” confirmed Shazam. “Xavier is in Rogueport town, but Aaron is in Boggly Woods - at least, I think it’s Aaron. Aaron Leif is his name, yeah?” “Aaron Leif. Yes.” “He’s a human now, for some... bizarre reason. Apparently, he was a human originally, so he was never actually a Ruff Puff.” Shazam sounded a little confused, “still, I suppose a human would be more useful than a Ruff Puff.” Sweeping aside his confusion, Shazam looked up the stairs, where his Snifits had vanished. “And... this guy says he knows you.” A pile of bones fell down the stairs in a crumpled heap at Tubba’s feet. With an eerie rattling noise, they joined together to make the form of a Skellobit. A familiar Skellobit. Soon after Shazam, Aaron, Xavier and others left after 2016, a new group of battlers came in to join them. Among them was a blue undead Skellobit named Sarge, dedicated to guarding and his friends. He was a little eccentric, ironically deathly scared of fire, but ultimately, in the end, cared about Tubba. Sarge was one of the few reasons that Tubba even made it to 2022, but, like most of his other battler friends, Sarge left the Glitz Pit before Tubba did. The last place Tubba expected to find him was with Shazam. “Sarge.” “Yeah,” Shazam said, seemingly unconcerned with a pile of bones assembling itself together. “I found him wandering in the mountains of the Waffle Kingdom, crying to get someone to reverse his undead spell and turn him back into a Toad. As far as I know, that type of magic isn’t possible. So, I took him under my wing, and here he is. With the introverts.” Sarge looked at Tubba with big yellow eyes. “I never thought I’d see you again.” Tubba was lost in his dreams. Shazam was with him. Sarge, who had never fought beside him in 2016, but had become his teammate and friend during the Glitz Pit seasons of 2017 and 2018, was also with him. They were both dedicated to reclaiming his Kingdom. “Let’s go get Xavier and Aaron.” Tubba said proudly. “You rogues,” he added affectionately. Things were falling into place better than Tubba could’ve anticipated.